The result should be a tonally even presentation. A phono stage is also an amplifier. So rather than the witchcraft we always sort-of suspected it must be, getting a sound from a vinyl disc turns out to be nothing more than fiendishly clever. It's worth bearing in mind the ingenuity at play when you next carefully place the tip of your stylus into the groove of a LP — but don't dwell on it for all that long.
After all, there's music to be listened to. He's been been reviewing hi-fi, TV and home cinema equipment for over two decades, and over that time has covered thousands of products. Ketan works across the What Hi-Fi? His background is based in electronic and mechanical engineering. What Hi-Fi? Ketan Bharadia. See all comments 0. No comments yet Comment from the forums. The stylus picks up vibrations as it moves through the grooves of recorded sound, and those vibrations travel along the metal band at the end of the tone arm, to wires in a cartridge at the end of the arm.
A coil in a magnetic field turns the vibrations into electrical signals, which are carried along wires to the amplifier. These boosted signals are finally turned back into sound through the speakers, producing the sounds and music recorded on vinyl records.
Vinyl records have replaced Berliner's rubber discs. Easy to mass produce, master recordings are copied by placing a lacquer on a record-cutting machine. The master copy sends electrical signals to the turning record-cutting machine through a cutting head, which holds a stylus and cuts a groove in the lacquer that coils to the middle of the round disc.
The cut lacquer is sent to a production company where it is covered in metal to make a metal master copy. This disc is a negative imprint of the lacquer and is ridged, not grooved.
The metal master is used to make a metal record to be used to make the stamper, a negative of the end product. The stamper is put on a hydraulic press with vinyl between the plates.
Ten years after its invention, in , a German inventor in the U. Instead of a cylinder with the sound etched in tinfoil or wax, he developed a device that rotated a hard rubber and later, shellac disc on a flat plate by the turn of a crank. But unlike its predecessor, the phonograph, Berliner's machine, the gramophone, could only play recordings. So Berliner started the Gramophone Company, which manufactured not only the machines, but the records played on them.
What was lost in the ability to both record and play back sound in one machine resulted in a new system whereby mass-produced recordings could be played and shared repeatedly. Berliner's company merged with that of inventor Eldridge Johnson to become the Victor Talking Machine Company in It manufactured and advertised both gramophones and records. Johnson refined the design of the gramophone, which until that time had been dominated by a large horn to amplify the sound. In order to fit more comfortably in a home, the horn was tilted down and the entire device placed in a cabinet.
This new design, introduced in , was called the Victrola. Meanwhile, the company also manufactured discs recorded by famous opera singers and musicians, giving the public unprecedented access to music [source: Shoenherr , Morton: Phonograph ]. Over time, the design of the gramophone and the recording process were continuously changing, yet the core elements of the needle in a groove remained the same.
By the midth century, most households had what was then commonly known as a record player and most recently called a turntable. Its mass popularity lasted until about the mids when cassette tape recordings overtook records.
We're on our way to finding out what exactly goes on during a record player's playback, but first, we need to understand the basics of how a vinyl record is created. The success of the gramophone to play recorded sounds was dependent on the ability to mass produce records.
The process of making records has its roots in Thomas Alva Edison's phonograph. First, a master recording is made, usually in a studio where engineers perfect the recorded sound. Then an object called a lacquer is placed on a record-cutting machine, and as it rotates, electric signals from the master recording travel to a cutting head, which holds a stylus, or needle.
The needle etches a groove in the lacquer that spirals to the center of the circular disc. The imprinted lacquer is then sent to a production company. There, the lacquer is coated in a metal, such as silver or nickel, to produce a metal master.
When the metal master is separated from the lacquer, the resulting disc has ridges instead of grooves. The metal master is then used to create a metal record, also called the mother, which is then used to form the stamper. Stampers are just negative versions of the original recording that will be used to make the actual vinyl records. Next, the stamper is placed in a hydraulic press, and vinyl is sandwiched in between.
Steam from the press softens the plastic as the stampers push an impression of the master recording onto it. Finally, the disc is stiffened using cool water. Once the record is ready to be played, it will need a proper machine to bring its sounds to life. Up next, we'll break down how exactly a record player's components work together to bring you the music.
Records are often referred to by the number of revolutions that they make on a turntable per minute, or RPMs. This number gives the listener an idea of how much is recorded on the record [source: Phonograph ]. For almost a century, the record player was the most common way to listen to recorded music, speeches, languages and lessons.
The design has been refined over the years, but the concept changed little, and the basic parts have remained the same. The turntable is the circular plate on which the record sits. A rod positioned in the center holds the record which has a hole in its center in place. The metal turntable is covered in rubber or plastic, which protects the record from being scratched. The turntable rotates or spins with the help of either a belt drive or direct drive system.
The stylus , or needle, is the smallest and perhaps the most important component of the record player. It is made from a diamond or other hard material, shaped like a cone and suspended by a flexible strip of metal. The pointed end is the only piece that touches the top of the record and it rides around the spiraling grooves of the disk, picking up the vibrations which are ultimately turned back into sound.
The stylus sits at one end of the tone arm, which is mounted to the side of the turntable and sits parallel to the record. With the needle or stylus placed in the outermost groove of the record, the tone arm follows the groove as it spirals inward, traveling across the record in an arc as the record spins beneath it. As this happens, the vibrations travel along a flexible metal strip and wires housed in the tone arm to the cartridge in the end of the tone arm.
The cartridge receives the vibrations, which are converted to electrical signals through a coil in a magnetic field. The electric signals are carried along wires to the amplifier which enhances the power of the signal. Finally, the signals are converted back to sounds that come out through the speakers. Initially, recorded sounds were mainly monophonic, meaning all of the sound signals are combined and come through one speaker or channel.
The introduction of stereophonic sound systems in allowed for a richer, more lifelike sound as two sets of sound waves were recorded. When played, the vibrations travel simultaneously along two different channels and are converted and dispersed through two different speakers. Record players became more common as recorded music grew in popularity, but not everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Read on to discover which famous band leader didn't like the idea of recorded music.
The invention of the record player is considered by many to be one of the most significant influences on music and culture. Much of the first recorded music was performed by marching bands, but John Phillip Sousa, one of America's most recognized band leaders, wrote in that a live performance was unique and that recordings cheapened the experience.
He admitted that the machines were "remarkable" and were sufficient for people who weren't able to learn music or attend a performance, but he feared that they would undermine the incentive to acquire musical ability and create original pieces [source: Sousa].
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